The most difficult sport of all. There are no timeouts, substitutions, halftimes, or other breaks. Because of this, the sport requires extreme amounts of stamina and talent to play, and to be successful, it requires even more effort. Cross country consists of long races (minimum 5k or 3.1 miles) over varied terrains, including hills, roads, mud puddles, grassy fields, rocky paths, and sometimes even shallow streams. To complete the race, the runners must not only have the strength to finish, but must also be aware of their surroundings at all times. Stop paying attention to your surroundings, and you could fall, costing you valuable seconds, knocking you out of the race, or even sending you to the hospital. Cross country is not to be confused with indoor/outdoor track. Although they have long-distance events, their longest usually is 5k, cross country's shortest. Also, they have no hills or other obstacles; they just run around a track many times. Road races aren't technically true cross country races, but usually get grouped together with cross country races because of their distance and hills. A true cross country race stays away from pavement as much as possible.
To succeed in cross country, a couple things are neccessary. For one, you have to have a strong heart and put in lots of practice. If running 5+ miles a day doesn't sound like a good workout, you'd better try a less-taxing sport. Secondly, a good pair a racing and training shoes are a must. For racing, lightwe...